NYC Dumpling Festival Oct. 24th!

Pickles, Apples, and Dumplings, oh my! The LES has so many arbitrary food festivals I can't even keep track. Brought to you by Chef One, the first-ever NYC Dumpling Festival, will take place on Saturday, October 24th from 12 pm – 5pm at the Sara D. Roosevelt Park on East Houston and Canal. Here, you can celebrate your true love of carbs by engaging in a dumpling-eating contest (try to beat last year's winner – 66 dumplings), or be modest and just sample some (wimp). The samples will consist of more than your traditional Asian dumplings, like gnocchi (Italy), tamale (Mexico), idli (India), palitaw (Philippines), bao (China), and one of my all-time faves, pierogi (Poland). There will also be cookbook signings from Jaden Hair, author of The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook: 101 Asian Recipes Simple Enough For Tonight's Dinner, and Chef Wai Hon Chu, co-author of The Dumpling: A Seasonal Guide. There will also be an East Village Dumpling Tour and class by Wai Hon Chu, and of course, what festival wouldn't be complete without some fun and games for the kids? I can see the dumplings flying through the air now..